


You Don’t Con Your Own Team—The Matching Set Job

by crayonbreakygal



Category: Leverage
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-12
Updated: 2016-04-12
Packaged: 2018-06-01 18:35:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6531406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crayonbreakygal/pseuds/crayonbreakygal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nate knew she was a thief.  So when she acts like one, he just doesn't understand.  Takes place during The Second David Job, season one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Don’t Con Your Own Team—The Matching Set Job

Takes place during The Second David Job, season one.  I just wanted to write a small scene on what could have happened between the two right before the big heist they pulled at the museum.  The two of them were already emotionally charged.  Why not make them more so?

You Don’t Con Your Own Team—The Matching Set Job

Nate didn’t want to speak with her, didn’t want to be alone with her.  Only Sophie had insisted the day before that they work this out before confronting Ian Blackpoole. 

The first con had not worked at all.  Damn Sterling and all his nosiness.  The idea of using the first David statue so that Maggie could authenticate it was a good plan.  They’d steal it back, replace it with Hardison’s fake, then nail Ian to the wall. Only Sophie wanted to take the first David and add it to her collection. 

This was supposed to be about revenge, not about stealing a priceless artifact.  When he discovered that Sophie (or Jenny as she was known then), had stolen the second David ten years before from the Vatican, now the con voice all made sense.  Sophie wanted a matching set. Giving it to Sterling to save Parker had been hard for the woman, but Nate didn’t care.  She had used her team, for a con of her own choosing.

The rest of the team was furious with her. It didn’t surprise him that she had the second one.  There it was, hiding in her storage unit, under lock and key.  She’d held onto it for ten years, not selling it to the highest bidder.  She could have gotten a pretty nice payout for the David.  Alone it was worth millions, as they knew from Ian.  Together?  Even more than selling the two of them separately.

“You don’t con your own team,” was the mantra from the others.

At first, Nate was angry.  She’d used him and used the excuse that she was a thief.  He knew that since he chased her all around Europe and Asia for ten years, attempting to catch her in the act.  This was irresistible. 

As he opened the crate and saw the second David, he could see her eyes light up.  It was always the same:  that one last score, the one that could make or break a thief.  Sophie had that look in her eyes.  She’d tried to con them, him into getting her the first David. And it would have worked, if he didn’t know her as well as he knew her.

Sure, he was an addict.  So was she.  That’s why they worked so well together.  Like attracts like.  Except Sophie assumed things about him that he never said, like him thinking that he was better than the thieves.  Hell, he wasn’t even anywhere near them in honesty, most of the time.  He never would be.

After telling Maggie about Ian, he felt like his world was spiraling apart.  He had tried to shield Maggie that one last bit of pain, but it was a mistake.  This whole con could turn out to be a mistake.

As he walked back into the house after Maggie left, tears still in his eyes, he watched as Sophie made her way upstairs. Now would be a good time for him to either apologize or for her to apologize.  They had to get through the next few days to pull this off.  Then, who knew where they’d land?

He finally found her in one of the bedrooms, curled up on a built-in bench, looking lost and alone.  This could not end well, he thought.  Confronting her now could blow it all up.  He didn’t care. 

“Sophie,” he said as he closed the door.

“Say it.  Just say it.”  She wouldn’t look at him.

“I’m not sure what you want me to say.”

“How I’m no good, just a thief.”

Well, she was a thief.  He was beginning to think he was too, but not sure where he fit into her definition of thief.

“Well, not just a thief.”

She turned her head quickly, attempting to wipe a tear off her face.  She was either playing him or deeply upset about all of this.

Throwing her shoes off, she quickly made her way over to him, stopping short, only a few inches before she’d touch him.  The anger on her face was unmistakable.  She’d wanted a fight with him.  Did he want a fight?

“What do you want me to do?  Beg you for forgiveness?”

“Sophie, just, look, we need to get past this so the con with Ian,” he started.

“Succeeds.  I understand.  Don’t treat me like that though.”

“Treat you like what?”

“Like I don’t matter.”

“You do matter.  A lot.”

As she pulled her hair away from her face, he could see her thinking, contemplating something he wasn’t aware of. 

“So here you are, we help you get your revenge on Blackpoole, your wife shows up.  Did you notice how you can’t call her your ex-wife?  You assume all I want is the David because you think I tried to con you.”

“You did try to con me.  I know that voice.”

“We’re helping you here and all I get is anger and …” Sophie stopped for a moment, slightly out of breath.

“Is this about me calling Maggie my wife?”

And that’s when Nate realized he had totally missed the point.  It wasn’t about the David, it wasn’t about Ian, it was about Maggie.  Sophie did not know how to deal with Maggie being there.

“I, no.  Of course not.”

That voice again.  He knew that voice.  She was lying.  He wasn’t sure anyone else on the planet would know that voice, but he did.

“You’re jealous.”

“What?” her voice modulated a bit higher.

“You’re jealous because Maggie is here.  There’s nothing I can do about that.”

He’d struck a nerve because he could see the anger boiling behind her eyes. He wondered when she’d blow. Maybe slipping out of the room would be a good course of action on his part.

“Well, considering you keep calling her your wife.  Bloody hell, how do you think I should feel, Nate?”

“Not jealous,” he answered, anger rising in his voice too.

They squared off in the room with no furniture and nowhere to hide.

“This is just asinine,” Sophie said as she started to leave the room.

“We are not done,” he told her as he attempted to stop her from leaving.

Slamming the door shut again, he leaned up against it, blocking her exit.

“Just move.”

“Not until you talk to me.”

She tried to move him, but he wouldn’t budge.  Grabbing his arms, she couldn’t move him an inch.  The contact brought them both to a standstill, with Sophie hanging on, not letting go.

Both were breathing heavily, but not because of her trying to shove him aside.  Yanking him forward, their lips collided, jarring his head a little bit.  She wasn’t letting go or letting up the pressure at all.  Pushing him up against the door, she devoured him, like she couldn’t get enough.  Her hands fisted into his hair, pulling him down to her height.  Her knee moved up and down his leg, wanting more contact.  Reaching down, he grabbed it and pulled it forward and around, making them both groan with anticipation.

Shoving him aside, Sophie looked him in the eye.

“Ex-wife.  Bet she never did that.”  With that, Sophie exited the room with a flourish, leaving him there to deal with the aftermath that was Sophie Devereaux.

At the end, when the ultimate con was concluded, the offices were no more, thanks to Sterling, they decided to go their own way again.  He ached knowing that they had never finished what they had started, in the conversation and that kiss. 

 


End file.
